Apparatuses and methods for acoustic noise cancelling

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10667035-B2
Application number	US-201916361251-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 22, 2019
Priority date	Mar 26, 2018
Publication date	May 26, 2020
Grant date	May 26, 2020

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to concepts of acoustic noise cancelling. A noise cancelling apparatus contains a propulsion component configured to autonomously move the noise cancelling apparatus, and circuitry. The circuitry is configured to determine a position of an acoustic source, to determine a position of an acoustic receiver, and, depending on the detected positions of the acoustic source and the acoustic receiver, to control the propulsion component to navigate the noise cancelling apparatus to a target position to at least partly cancel an acoustic signal from the acoustic source at the position of the acoustic receiver.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A noise cancelling apparatus, comprising:
a propulsion component configured to move the noise cancelling apparatus; and circuitry configured to
determine a position of an acoustic receiver;
depending on the determined position of the acoustic receiver, control the propulsion component to navigate the noise cancelling apparatus to a target position to at least partly cancel an acoustic signal from an acoustic source at the position of the acoustic receiver.

2. The noise cancelling apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the circuitry is further configured to
generate an acoustic countersignal at the target position, the acoustic countersignal at least partly canceling the acoustic signal from the acoustic source due to interference at the position of the acoustic receiver.

3. The noise cancelling apparatus according to claim 2 ,
wherein the circuitry is configured to generate the countersignal with respect to the position of the acoustic source, the position of the acoustic receiver, and the position of the noise cancelling apparatus.

4. The noise cancelling apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the noise cancelling apparatus provides two operating modes, wherein in a first operating mode a user of the noise cancelling apparatus is the acoustic source, and wherein in a second operating mode a user of the noise cancelling apparatus is the acoustic receiver.

5. The noise cancelling apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the circuitry is configured to emit an arbitrary signal as a countersignal masking the acoustic signal from the acoustic source at the position of the acoustic receiver.

6. The noise cancelling apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the target position is one of a position between the position of the acoustic source and the position of the acoustic receiver, and a position on a line of sight between the position of the acoustic source and the position of the acoustic receiver.

7. The noise cancelling apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the circuitry is configured to determine the target position based on environmental information about an environment of the noise cancelling apparatus detected by one or more sensors of the noise cancelling apparatus.

8. The noise cancelling apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the noise cancelling apparatus is part of a drone, wherein the propulsion component comprises a propeller of the drone configured to move the noise cancelling apparatus in three orthogonal dimensions, or part of a robot, wherein the propulsion component comprises a movement device of the robot.

9. The noise cancelling apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the circuitry is configured to determine the position of a user of the noise cancelling apparatus as the position of the acoustic receiver or as a position of the acoustic source based on an position information signal received from a mobile or wearable device carried by the user.

10. The noise cancelling apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the circuitry comprises at least one camera and is configured to detect at least one person based on an image recognition system, wherein a position of the at least one person is used as the position of the acoustic receiver or the acoustic source.

11. The noise cancelling apparatus according to claim 10 ,
wherein the circuitry is configured to determine the position of the person as position of the acoustic receiver based on a distance between the position of the person and the position of the acoustic source and/or based on a behavior of the person, wherein the distance and behavior are detected using one or more sensors of the noise cancelling apparatus.

12. The noise cancelling apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the circuitry comprises at least an antenna configured to detect electromagnetic signals, wherein the circuitry is configured to determine a source of an electromagnetic signal not assigned to an electrical device of a user of the noise cancelling apparatus as the position of the acoustic receiver.

13. The noise cancelling apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising determining the position of the acoustic source.

14. The noise cancelling apparatus according to claim 13 ,
wherein the circuitry comprises at least one microphone and the circuitry determines a position of a most intensive acoustic emission as the position of the acoustic source.

15. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein
the circuitry comprises at least one camera and is configured to detect at least one person based on an image recognition system.

16. The electronic device of claim 15 , wherein
a position of the at least one person is used as the position of the acoustic receiver or the acoustic source.

17. A noise cancelling method performed by a noise cancelling apparatus, the method comprising:
determine a position of an acoustic receiver;
depending on the determined position of the acoustic receiver, controlling a propulsion component of the noise cancelling apparatus to navigate the noise cancelling apparatus to a target position to at least partly cancel an acoustic signal from an acoustic source at the position of the acoustic receiver.

18. An electronic device, comprising:
circuitry configured to
determine a position of an acoustic receiver; and
depending on the determined position of the acoustic receiver, control a propulsion components of the electronic device to navigate the electronic device to a position to at least partially cancel an acoustic signal from an acoustic source at the position of the acoustic receiver.

19. The electronic device of claim 18 , wherein electronic device is:
part of a drone and the propulsion component comprises a propeller of the drone configured to move the electronic device in three orthogonal dimensions; or
part of a robot and the propulsion component comprises a movement device of the robot.

20. The electronic device of claim 18 , wherein
the circuitry is configured to determine a position of a user of the electronic device as the position of the acoustic receiver or as a position of the acoustic source based on a position information signal received from a mobile or wearable device carried by the user.

Assignees

• Sony Corp

Inventors

• Hentunen Daavid
• Cardinaux Fabien
• Magalhaes Hugo

Classifications

• H04R1/028

  associated with devices performing functions other than acoustics, e.g. electric candles · CPC title

• G10K11/35

  using mechanical steering of transducers {or their beams} · CPC title

• H04R27/00 Primary

  Public address systems (circuits for preventing acoustic reaction H04R3/02; circuits for distributing signals to loudspeakers H04R3/12; {monitoring or testing arrangements for public address systems H04R29/007}; amplifiers H03F) · CPC title

• H04R1/22 Primary

  for obtaining desired frequency characteristic only  {(circuit for combining transducers having different responses H04R3/00; for hearing aids H04R25/407)} · CPC title

• H04R2410/05

  Noise reduction with a separate noise microphone · CPC title